random stuff from the month of august

our last month of summer was just as fun filled as the previous two =o]

here are our last four musical monday experiences (all jumbled up for some reason??)

this is Sound of Music= Music makes your life better!

this is Oklahoma= A positive attitude makes your life better!

Godspell= There are lots of people who are not members of our church who still believe in Jesus and love His teachings; we appreciate their camaraderie! 

and Tarzan= Love learning; it makes your life better!

we have loved doing musical mondays this summer and i look forward to doing more in the future =o]

this is our pet lizard stanley. he lives in our garage and poops on our stuff and startles us by popping up random places, but he eats crickets so we like him. 

natalie and caleb got a free month of weekly karate lessons through the summer reading program at the library. they had a GREAT experience =o]

here are the t-shirts they got =o] 

and here they are after the last night of class when they earned their white belts by breaking their first boards. they were both so proud and want to continue on with the program. who wouldn't, right??

have i mentioned how much i love FHE? well we do. i couldn't resist taking a picture of this awesome lesson on reverence kent gave. our whole ward knows how much we need it lol

this is caleb reaction to kent's examples of what is NOT reverent.

it was classic!

this month we started our book club for the kids. 

and our service club. i am so excited about these two clubs! the kids love it too, don't worry lol

i also hosted my book club at my house and had a great time! i learned a lot from this book. ANYONE can make a difference and become a powerful force for good if they just make the choice! 

my family is doing this health challenge thing, each of us are going to take turns setting a goal and working on it for a month with everyone and i made the first suggestion. i challenged us to get rid of any food that has sugar as the first or second ingredient. eating dessert is fine in my book, but food should be real food! even if no one else benefited from this label checking challenge we sure did! no more pop-tarts for sunday breakfast thank heaven!! we call them "red zone" foods and we are fully committed to quitting them let me tell you! =o]

other than that, there has just been a ton of good times playing together. i'm sure we will all miss the laid back free time with no agenda or obligations =o]

Natalie is ready for school to start again!

Natalie has appreciated our weekly visits to the library more than the others and the librarians know her by name or at the very least recognize her lol

caleb is so great. he is growing up so much!! he plays legos every day and is the only one of the kids motivated enough to do 5 chores to get extra screen time =o]

jenna's favorite phrase this month has been "mom, can you teach me how to do this?" =o] another funny thing she said a couple days ago was, after i apologized about not sweeping the floor the night before and ants attacked she said "thank you, but it's not really ok" with this aloof look on her face. she is hilarious!

and then there is our adorable little seth. the kids have started calling him "buddy" but i am protesting. he loves to stick out his tongue ha ha 

he also LOVES books! and he is much more gentle with them than his older sister. he loves the kind with parts to feel or flaps to lift up. we read every time he goes down for a nap or bed and he kicks his little feet and squeals and even kisses the books =o] 

and there you have it! thanks for the memories summer of 2014! now on to the next chapter!!